Auditory vision substitution

Grader A: partial

Sensory-substitution systems such as The vOICe are freely available on smartphones and used by a small community; no evidence of routine clinical or rehab adoption or of 5% of blind users. Real but niche use. Could be read as miss if consumer use outside health care does not count.

Test: D37 health: share of relevant patients, providers or procedures using it by 2022 (hit >=5%; partial <5% real use by 2022 or 5% in 2023-2025; miss no real use by 2025); relevant: blind people / vision rehabilitation

• The vOICe: Seeing with Sound (2025): Free auditory vision substitution app for Android and web; no adoption figures

Grader B: miss

Visual-to-auditory sensory substitution (the vOICe, EyeMusic) stayed in research; reviews state only a few SSDs were ever used outside the lab and none was adopted by a wide blind community, with training as the bottleneck. No routine use in vision rehabilitation found. AI scene-description apps (Seeing AI, Be My Eyes) speak descriptions rather than substitute a sense and are not counted.

Test: D37 health: >=5% of blind people or vision-rehabilitation services use it by 2022 = hit; real routine use below 5% = partial; no real use in care by 2025 = miss.

• A self-training program for sensory substitution devices (PLoS One) (2021): Only a few visual-to-auditory/tactile SSDs used outside the lab; none adopted as main tool by a wide blind community.
• Designing sensory-substitution devices: Principles, pitfalls and potential (2016): Auditory SSDs face adoption barriers (training, unpleasant cues).